April Shenanigans

Oh man, what a month! We had Easter, General Conference, a trip to Arizona, orchestra concerts, Covid shots, prom, our anniversary, senior pictures, and lots of normal life.

Spring Break in Arizona:

We had never really been to Arizona, besides Lake Powell/Page one time, the Grand Canyon once, and the corner of Arizona on the way to Vegas a million times. But, we had never navigated the state, which is crazy, considering how many road trips we've done and that Arizona is our neighbor. So we decided to check it out, and it was great! (Anders did not go with us, he had a trip planned with friends.) 

Not to brag or anything, but our girls are pretty wonderful. They get along with each other, they love each other, they look out for each other. They never complained on this trip- and we drove tons. They just handled it and had a good time wherever we went. 

I really wanted to see the Saguaro cacti, which was my main motivation for wanting to go to Arizona in the first place, and that resulted in a grand tour of the state, basically. 

We stayed in Flagstaff for 2 nights. Flagstaff is a cool town in the mountains. Who knew? It kind of feels like you're at summer camp with all those trees! We hit up Grand Canyon, which the girls didn't seem overly impressed by. I mean, it's the Grand Canyon, but I think nature isn't that cool when you're a kid, and we live in Utah and have lots of awe-inspiring vistas often, so they're spoiled. I think it would be fun to go to the North Rim next time- less crowded and a different perspective. 

From Flagstaff, we stopped for a few hours in Sedona. It is so beautiful there! The girls loved Sedona, with its charming shops. There was a man in the plaza there with a bunch or reptiles and rodents that he was letting anyone hold and play with, so that was pretty fun for them. Sedona is definitely a destination of its own, so we'll have to put that on our list. 

We stayed in Phoenix for the next two nights. We had a good time staying downtown in a fun hotel, and got to go to an aquarium, had a fun dinner out at The Old Spaghetti Factory, and went to the Phoenix Art Museum. 

We headed down to Tucson the next day so we could go to Saguaro National Park and see all of the giant cacti. We were only able to be there for a couple of hours before it got dark, but we wanted to be there for sunset. It was really fun. We had a great time with all of those crazy cacti- they're so weird. They are super old. They only start to grow their arms when they're 75 years old. Bananas! How can you not love them? We loved the forest of Saguaros. 

Arizona was a win.

Anders:

Oh Anders, what will you do with your life? No one knows. Currently, he is graduating from Westlake High School in one month, as well as graduating from Mountainland Technical College from the web development program. He will do a 6 week externship as part of the web development course, and then receive his certificate. 

This kid has the potential to do literally anything he wants to. He's quite bright, but is much less concerned with that than he is with having fun 24/7. Fun is #1 for him, which is fine, but he's gotta start making some decisions here pretty soon. He has at least 18 credits done at UVU, so that seems like an obvious choice, but he's not convinced. He's very wishy-washy on a mission right now, so we're trying to tread lightly and encourage him when we have opportunities to. We'll see. A crystal ball would be nice sometimes. 

All that said, he's a great kid, he's lots of fun to be around, and he has a bright future, whatever that turns out to be. 

Also, I would just like to document this: Most nights he works late- sometimes he gets home after 11:00, or close to midnight. Whenever he gets home, he comes into our room to say hi, and wants to chat. So...hopefully in spite of our frustrations, he loves us and knows we love him, too, and values our relationship with him, and maybe even values our input?

Prom happened. I think it was more about him and the boys than it was about the boys and their dates, but hopefully the girls had fun, too, haha. He's got a great group of friends, and is so sad at the thought of them going their separate ways eventually. Also, Nils was kind enough to travel to Provo to take these pictures for all of them. 

Senior pictures

His brain is so big because of all the knowledge in there...

Normal Life:

How can I resist him? I can't. 

For our anniversary last week, we went to The Cheesecake Factory and the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. The Cheesecake Factory was great. Yummy food, yummy cheesecake (GF, even!). The Tulip Festival was kind of ridiculous. There were so many people there, and it was 2:00 on a Thursday afternoon. What the heck? But, now that we've been married for 21 years, we feel like we finally know each other and have a handle on this marriage thing. ;)

Sneak peek of this week's video- turned pens with custom carvings via a rotary tool... very high tech stuff.

Nils asked Aani to draw a mascot for LRN2DIY, and here's what she came up with. She cracks me up. 

Addie's orchestra concert

Mean mommy made my big kids get their Covid shots, but then I took them to McDonald's so it's okay.

The girls think it's hilarious to get in our bed when it's time for Come Follow Me. Nils had fun torturing them with whatever was on these gloves. 

Addie is learning to drive, and it's terrifying. Teaching kids to drive has got to be one of the worst parenting responsibilities there is. 

Just Aani dreaming about how much she loves lasagna. 

The bizness keeps plugging along. We have a few sponsored videos coming up, and got an awesome opportunity to work with DAP (of putty and caulking fame) on a couple of videos, which is pretty amazing. Things are A-OK, and we're still paying ye olde mortgage and everything. 

Also, check out my gluten-free blog! I only have 2 posts because I'm still learning how to take pictures of food, but it's a work in progress. 

The Pigeons Need to Stop

We've had pigeons roosting in our solar panels and it's not cool. They're really loud, and they need to find another place in which to sit. Nils bought an air rifle, which is a glorified BB gun, and that seems to have taken care of the problem for the moment. He's a real Utah boy now, with his air rifle and his truck. 

Target practice (and my finger). 

My good friend is a nurse, and has been trying to get us in to get our Covid vaccines when there are surpluses at the end of the day at the clinics. We were able to go last Friday and get our first dose. Yahoo! 

This was not target practice, but the little BB gun was not cutting it. 

Addie and Aani have been earning money by babysitting, giving violin lessons, and doing odd jobs for people in the neighborhood. They wanted to go shopping, and boy did they have a great time. They got some pretzel bites to refuel.

I don't know what exactly was happening with Ava's hair, but we felt like we should take a picture of it.

Someone mopped the kitchenette- probably Ava, since she's the only one that would leave a 'caution wet' sign.

Anders got his first college acceptance letter, but he refused to cooperate and let me take a picture of him with it. This is kind of how our lives are going right now with him. He's a real peach. We don't know what he's going to do or where he'll be once he graduates high school. Pray for us.

We had a bidet company sponsor a video, so we had to clear out our 'water closet' to make it look neat and tidy. We use our water closet as a medicine cabinet of sorts. 

Filming the installation of a toilet in a stranger's bathroom for aforementioned bidet sponsored video. YouTube life be glamorous. 

We got some home theater seating in exchange for a video. It's thousands of dollars worth of seating, so we'll probably end up selling it after we make the video. YouTube life=too much furniture.

We got a cargo thing for the Telluride. Road trippin' is happening a lot this year. Next up: Arizona. Next up after that: South Carolina. 

Anders got an answer to prom:

Sisterly bonding over a dust collection hose. Sometimes we have to make our fun, don't we? 

Happenings this month: Addie took a lifeguard certification class, passed, and now just needs to find a job as a lifeguard. :) She started drivers ed yesterday as well. She's just growing right up. She also teaches violin lessons to a cute girl in the 'hood. 

Aani has been babysitting and going to Carol's house to earn money. Carol lives in the neighborhood and is nice enough to find random things for Aani to do, like organizing, dusting, vacuuming, etc. Aani handed out fliers a couple of months ago, and Carol responded. 

Ava's friend drama came to a head, and resulted in a letter from said friend that ended with "we're either best friends or we're not- there is no middle", and we were all shocked by that. So... Ava chose "not best friends". These girl fights are brutal. 

Anders continues to confound us. 

Nils went on a starvation diet this month to lose weight. I love him, but he can be very extreme with these sorts of things and does things that I have no interest in doing. He's down 19 pounds. He plans to fully start pigging out tomorrow. 

I've been driving people places, making food, doing laundry, writing website articles, communicating with sponsors, helping film sometimes, taking Tylenol PM to get some sleep, trying to convince my son to go to college or make some sort of life plan, and toying with the idea of starting a gluten free food blog because we don't have enough going on. 

Shows Nils and I have been liking: 

The 'Long Way' series is one we've loved. Long Way Round, Long Way Down, Long Way Up. They're delightful. There is lots of swearing in the first one, a little less in the second, and none in the third. We prefer the no swearing, but they're really fun regardless. 

The Crown is amazing.

Life in Pieces is hilarious.

The Chosen is just wonderful and we can't wait for season 2 this Sunday! 

The Durrells in Corfu makes us pine for Greece. It's clever and full of wit. 

Doc Martin is an old favorite and still doesn't disappoint. 

World's Toughest Race is way better than you think it will be. 

There are probably more but I can't think of them. We'd love any suggestions as well. 

February, Oh My

I'm having the children and Nils give me a summary of the month in their own words, so this (Anders' in particular) may not make sense to people over the age of 20. 

Anders in his own words: February 🥴🙃been kinda nice wit it 🥶💯 it was chilly but fire 🔥😈 bananas were slayed 🍌😔 but the samurai lives on ⚔️wisdom teeth removed 🦷🚫 Valentine’s Day💕💘 New Phone 📱💦

Banana saga:

Addie in her own words: Uhhh this month was valentinesI got a couple pillows and a blanket. And I drew a lot. That's all bye

These are the pictures Addie sent me to include:

Crazy morning hair

Face swapping with creepy baby dolls. 

Smiling orange

Poster for health- they had to make up a syndrome.

Aani in her own words: Grades were hard this month. I missed school for a couple of doctor's appointments and orchestra festival. I redecorated my room and it's amaaaaaze. I dropped my phone in the toilet so it's non-functional.✨

She likes stealing people's phones and taking unattractive selfies on them. 

Shiplapping her room. 

Ava in her own words: Valentine's Day happened and I finished my giant Hershey's Kiss in two days. I got into tumbling.🤸🏻‍♂️I like my teacher and I enjoy tumbling because I like to flip around and do stuff like that. I got new glasses after breaking my old ones. 

Aani and Ava made Nils lunch

Nils in his own words: Continuing to enjoy acoustic guitar building, still thrilled to be doing my own thing, and the kids and I have rediscovered Mario Kart, so that's fun.

Katrina: We were really pathetic at taking pictures this month, so I had to ask the kids for submissions. It's been a pretty routine, busy month with work, shuttling kids around and life in general. I've been able to get together with some friends this month, which is always great for my general well-being. Work is quite busy, there's always tons to do, and many opportunities are presenting themselves. The trick is knowing which ones are worthwhile. 

Anders got his wisdom teeth out for FREE! I got him into a clinical research study, so they paid him to have it done. So nice! He's working at Chick-fil-A and Noodles, and is looking forward to graduating here in a couple months. Crazy stuff. Any time he needs to make an adult decision, he says, "But I'm just a kid." Anytime he wants to argue about rules, he says, "But I'm an adult." Super fun. 

Addie's swim season finished up, so she's needing to be driven around much less these days. She hangs out with her friends a lot, draws a lot, and has been reading the Stormlight Archive book series, which is like 30,000 pages long. 

Aani is doing well in school and orchestra, likes stealing people's phones and taking pictures of herself, likes hanging out with friends and her sisters, and drawing and watercoloring.

Ava likes school, has a little friend drama but is hanging in there. We got her back into tumbling and she'll start piano lessons this week. She's still crafty and cannot keep her room clean. 

Welp, thanks for reading! Feel free to head on over to lrn2diy.com and click on some ads. Thanks! :)